How-To Writing: How To Make An Owl Candy Holder!

Our current writing unit is How-To writing, in which students choose a task or project and write a step-by-step book to teach others how to meet the objective.  

I love this unit because it involves us making a bunch of stuff as examples of How-To writing.  The kids love it because they get to add colored pages to their books (red pages for warnings and green pages for tips).  A really good example of a warning from a child's writing this week, "How To Make Pancakes" was 'Be careful! Don't burn yourself on the stove!' I suggested including a tip that said 'When you see the bubbles, you know it's time to flip the pancake over.'

I had a parent donate a large amount of toilet paper rolls and I was incredibly excited because I knew right away how I wanted to use them!  The very next day I wrote a hurried How-To book and had the kids follow along to make their own candy holders!

Going through each step one by one helped students realize what they needed in their own writing.

Without the "Things You Will Need" page, we wouldn't have known what to get ready.  I accidentally left scissors out initially, and we realized it was important to add those!

We also saw that it was more trouble than it was worth to add the feet, so we just crossed through that step.  We talked about using words like "first," "next," "then" and "finally."  We talked about putting one step per page.  We talked about drawing clear pictures with arrows that helped the reader understand the directions.

When we finished, students went back through their own writing to make sure it was clear and easy for the reader to understand.

Looking Closely: Observing, Labeling and Listing Like Scientists

This writing unit is always my favorite to teach.  It's so hands-on, and you get to teach pretty cool stuff about science while simultaneously teaching about writing.  

To kick off the unit,  I like to bring a collection of materials for students to observe, draw and write about on the same topic.  That way, I can turn the writing into a class book for children to read again and again!  It can be a collection of things you already have -- coins, stamps, rocks, etc.  If you don't have any collections of unique items,  you can show the students a video, such as a Planet Earth clip, and have them all draw, label and write about what they noticed.   Each student will pick up on different things, but it still allows you to make a class book with the results.  I've found, at least for me, it's best if each student has his/her own object if you're writing about something physical (versus something on a movie clip).   Pass out magnifying glasses and really let them EXPLORE!

You can also have students go on a hunt for things they can collect and write about -- leaves, rocks, BUGS(?) -- or maybe you want students to bring a specific item from home to write about.  Everyone could bring a seed from a fruit they've eaten, a stuffed animal, a stick they picked up in the backyard, etc.  

Obviously I'm a fan of everyone writing about the same topic (just in the beginning of the unit) to really bulk up on the class books.  It also makes it easier for you when conferencing with the kiddos -- you already know what they're meant to be writing about, and it helps the ones who get stuck when thinking of an idea.

This year, I brought my rock collection and some coral I collected on various beaches during summer vacation.  

This was my example from a previous year that I used again to show the kids.  If you're worried about my spelling, please see my post on phonetic spelling. 

We drew, labeled and listed some description words.  After, we tried to use one or two of those words in a complete sentence.

I made the kids a simple anchor chart to keep in their writing folders as a reminder of what steps to take:

Teachers, you can find a full-size download available at TpT by clicking the image above.   Parents, if you did not get a copy of this at Parent Learning Night and would like a hard copy, please let me know and I'll send one in your child's binder!

Fruit Exploration, Texure Walk, Visit from the Sheriff's Dept.

Ok, truth be told I got a little behind on the blogging.  David was about to return from his deployment, so in the days leading up to his return any spare moment was spent Marie Kondo-ing our home.  Then, obviously, I was overjoyed to spend some time with him in his return.  So my free time left little room for blogging.  I failed you! But I'm back. :)

Let's take a look at some of the things we've been up to:

August 25, Five Senses Fruit Exploration-

Students used all five senses to observe and explore fruit.  It was easy to tell which fruit was which with our sense of sight, but then we had to close our eyes and rely on the texture and feel of the fruits.  To make things even more challenging, we peeled and cubed some similar-looking fruits.  With our sense of sight alone, we could no longer tell which fruit was which.  We had to rely on smell and taste to be sure!

August 26, Five Senses Texture Walk-

Students took off their shoes and enjoyed the feel of various textures beneath their feet!  Students felt things that were soft, smooth, hard, rough, squishy and wet.

August 29, Visit from the Sheriff's Department-

Mrs. Watkins is married to a police officer and had this wonderful idea!  Shirley Hills Elementary School is promoting positive views of police officers by hosting a monthly appreciation day for them.  Once a month, officers will come by our school on rotation to sit and eat lunch with our elementary students.    Kindergarten students made the first batch of appreciation cards. 

For a lot of kids, their only understanding of a police officer is "you arrest bad guys and take them to jail."  It was pretty cool for the kids to have the chance for a Q&A with various officers.  Just look at that look of admiration:

September 8, Count & Dump Math Game-

Students roll one die or two dice.  They count that many of their counters as they place them in a cup. When finished, their partner dumps the cup and counts to check his/her partner's work.  Then it's the next player's turn.  This is excellent reinforcement for checking your work!

September 8, Fabric Texture Sort-

Students worked in groups to sort a bag of fabrics based on various textures. 

September 9, Books on Parade-

As our Readers' Workshop Unit 1 came to a close, we celebrated with our favorite books on parade.  Students selected their favorite books they've heard/read so far this year.  We awarded each with a blue ribbon, and headed around the school to show everyone our top choices!  Mrs. Dunlap, the API, listened to students' favorite parts.

Look at those SMILES! They're so excited about their books! LOVE IT! 

We ended our parade in our Book Buddies' classroom, reading our favorites to our fifth grade partners:

Next post will be a look into our new Reading and Writing units.

Persuasive Writing

Last week we previewed our current unit on Persuasive Writing.  We read stories that focused on convincing people to do certain things.  These stories included:

1.  The Day the Crayons Quit, by Oliver Jeffers. (I absolutely love all stories by Oliver Jeffers.)

This story shows persuasive writing in letter form.  You can kind of work the petition angle here, too, with the protesting crayons.  After reading the book, we made a sign as a class. It said "STOP! Take Care of Your Crayons!" and listed various ways to take good care of them.  We put extra emphasis on PUT CRAYONS BACK IN YOUR PENCIL BOX since that's a huge issue we're having this year. 

2. What Pet to Get? by Emma Dodd.  We wrote a letter to the main character, Jack, telling him what pet we thought he should get.  As a class, we said he should get a German Shepherd (I think career day with the Sheriff's office heavily influenced this decision...) and listed 6 reasons why we thought a German Shepherd was the best option.  This was a great introduction to the WHY? part of persuasive writing and helped students see that the more reasons we listed, the more convincing our suggestion became.

3. Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin.  This helped us revisit the power of words in letters! Students also saw how convincing a trade could be in persuading others.  (For better or worse...)

This week, to start applying what we know about persuasive writing, students identified a problem in the school and made signs to persuade others to fix the problem.  I laughed so hard at these student-identified problems....

Don't stick your tongue out! It makes people cry!

Stop don't bother the teacher when they're with a group! 

Why? Because you will fly your owl! Raise your hand please!

[SHE KNOWS WHAT'S UP.]

Stop! Don't run in the hallway!

You might break your leg or your arm!!!!!

Don't step on the iPad!! It will break!

[SERIOUSLY. I'm glad someone made this!]

And my personal favorite......

Stop! Flush the toilet! 

No one else wants to flush your stinky mess!

We also wrote letters to various Dr. Seuss characters (Sally & Nick, Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 & Thing 2) letting them know what choices they should make and why. Some of them were really convincing!! Sorry, parents, if you start getting letters from your children explaining WHAT toy they need and WHY they just have to have it.... ;).  Our next shared writing activity will be a kindergarten petition for five extra minutes on our recess time! I'll let you know how that pans out...